The present invention relates to a power-assist device for transporting hospital beds. More specifically, the present invention is an electrically powered device adapted to assist a person in moving and steering a hospital bed.
Currently, most hospital beds, specialized treatment beds, and patient transfer beds (hereinafter, “hospital beds”) are moved manually by people (the “mover”). Hospital beds are moved with regularity, because there is less physical effort required to move the entire bed than to lift the patient off the bed onto a gurney bed and then move the patient and gurney bed to another room, where they must again lift them back into a bed. Due to the weight of the typical hospital bed, the force required to move the bed through long corridors, up or down ramps, or over carpet requires force that exceeds a safe workload. As a result, a significant number of injuries occur to hospital bed movers each year. A typical hospital beds weighs between 400 and 2000 pounds, depending on the style of bed and the weight of the patient in the bed.
Under the current procedure for moving hospital beds, the mover pushes on the edge of the bed mattress or on handles that are located on the headboard or footboard of the bed, all of which are above waist height (approximately 4 feet above ground level). This pushing requires the mover to use the legs, hips, back, arms, and hands, any one of which is susceptible to injury from over exertion. These injuries cause lost work time and long-term health problems for the movers, and they cause added expenses to the hospitals. And lastly, the people that must move the beds are often nurses, and moving hospital beds contributes to the already high rate of nurse workplace injuries and is typically not a task the nurses enjoy.
There is a need in the art for an electrically powered hospital bed moving machine (hereinafter, “machine”) to assist moving the hospital bed, which will work with the wide range of hospital beds in existence and eliminate most of the physical effort required to move and steer the bed safely. There is further need for a machine having a highly secure and adaptable hitching mechanism, which will allow a simple and fast connection. Finally, there is a need for the proper electrical controls and devices to control, efficiently power, and recharge the machine.